Ground Penetrating Radar for Buried Landmine and IED Detection

Detection of landmines using electromagnetic induction (EMI) techniques is well established and a range of metal detectors is commercially available. Recent developments using dual sensor technology combining EMI and ground penetrating radar (GPR) have enabled improved discrimination against small metal fragments to be demonstrated in live minefields. Reductions of up to 7:1 compared with the standard metal detector have been achieved in the field by hand held systems such as the UK-German MINEHOUND/VMR2 system and the US AN/PSS-14 (formerly HSTAMIDS: Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System). Stand off vehicle based radar systems are now being trialled in realistic conditions. Airborne systems have also been trialled, but as yet have some way to go to deliver useful performance. These three distinct modes of operation pose fundamentally different challenges in terms of the physics of propagation and the radar system design and will be discussed. End user expectations in terms of performance are challenging and at present only the hand held detectors are approaching these needs. This chapter reviews the high-level performance requirements from an OA perspective in order to set the performance envelopes of the radar designs. We also address the fundamental challenges in terms of propagation, proximity to the ground surface; ground topography and signal to noise and signal to clutter bandwidth of operation with reference to both close in and stand off landmine and IED detection. A review of the performance of GPR systems at the higher TRL levels is provided. A key issue in comparing the published results of controlled trials relates to statistics of the depth of cover, the soil propagation characteristics, and the type of landmine, the sample size, the physical placement of the landmine as well as the characteristics of the clutter. This chapter will also highlight the future engineering challenges to achieve not only detection but recognition and identification using GPR.